I am a stay at home mom to four little boys and wife to Andy (highschool sweetheart) since May 26, 2001. We want our kids to know and love God, cherish family, and learn to serve others. We try to keep it simple but also work towards adding little luxuries along the way. Life can be intense, but I am truly living my dream.
The school year is officially in swing with today marking the second "first day of school" when Grant boarded the school bus mid-morning. Clayton started kindergarten on August 5th. Public preschool always starts a little later than the rest of the public school kids, and they get out a little earlier, as well. Clayton was as cool as a cucumber on his first day and Grant was nervously giddy with excitement. Grant's preschool will run a half of a day and he will go in the afternoon session. I was quite tearful as I watched that big yellow bus swallow my firstborn and take him away - kindergarten just feels like such a big deal! With Grant I was just bursting with pride and excitedness knowing how he will probably jump right in and make all kinds of new friends and have everyone falling in love with him with his kind heart and generous, fun-loving spirit. It's so hard to believe that we are at this stage of the game already! Grant will be in kindergarten next year, Evan the next, and Blake just two years after that - phew, it is scary how fast it will all go by!
Clayton
Grant
I also put together a little video of each day. I have discovered Windows Movie Maker lately and figured out how to put multiple clips of video together into one movie. I love projects like this so you may be seeing even more video with my posts in the future!
I have never cared much for the big hill that was created in our back yard after it was back-filled when the house was finished being built. That is, until this weekend. After much scrutiny over how to celebrate the two littlest boys 3rd and 1st birthdays we settled upon a joint birthday party with a "water" theme. It is, after all, August! So we threw around the ideas of renting a public pool or one of those inflatable water slides, but after figuring up the cost we decided it was too much for this year's budget. So instead, we opted to homemake a slip n slide for the kids in hopes that they would enjoy it. I don't think they (or we) were disappointed! The hill going down the back and side of the house made a perfect slide and gave the kids a way to gain a little speed as they hurled themselves down. We acquired a large plastic construction-type tarp from my sister (thanks Jody & William!), and with a little help from a couple of water hoses/sprinklers and some tear-free baby soap, the kids were slipping and sliding and having a blast! Also, as their gift, Andy's sister, Sherrie, bought them a small kiddie pool which we set up prior to the party and the kids had a ball diving and swimming around in about 30 inches of water. I think these kids had so much fun! If you know our parties, then it's no surprise that the adults are outnumbered almost 2:1. Plus, it's always such a blessing to have everyone pitch in like they do and bring a dish for a smorgasboard of delicious food! We have such a wonderful group of family and friends! This is what it's all about for us - getting together to celebrate and seeing all the kids delight in the fellowship of their family and friends. It doesn't get much better than this. So, I now see that hill in a new way and you can probably bank on that not being the last of the slipping and sliding we'll be seeing there.
Of course, I have some video of all the fun! Evan has to catch a sprinkle on the way down the first time, lol! I thought Grant might tucker out before he got to the pool to jump in, lol - you'll see, lol. And Evan got nailed by another kid in that last clip (which I cut out), but he came up smiling and laughing. And Blake even got in on a little of the action when my niece, Katie, was kind enough to take him for a ride. He's a little young still for this kind of thing so he was just as content to get back into his dry clothes shortly thereafter and play with his baby toys, lol.
I got some killer deals at Kroger this past week and I have the receipt to prove it! (Be sure and look at the savings breakdown near the top - click on it to enlarge.) Coupon shopping is a LOT of work, but it can really pay off! I use grocerygame.com where half the work is done for you, but honestly, the other half is still a time-consuming chore. If you sign up for a trial be sure and enter my email address as a referral, thanks!
